Author: rokur

Rivalry so intense that it is a ‘must-see’ for fellow (busy) swimmers. The Bleacher Report says Lochte will take also round 2. Starting in less than an hour, all relevant links here.

Also featuring “the ever enthusiastic London Mayor Boris Johnson” :-)

Last night, Brendan Hansen won his 3rd successive U.S. Olympic Trial 100 breaststroke, impressive after having quit the sport and then returned only a year ago. He and Eric Shanteau qualified for the Olympics, Dana Vollmer and Claire Donahue in the women’s 100 butterfly, and Allison Schmitt and Chloe Sutton in the women’s 400 freestyle. See alt results from day 2 here, and read for instance SwimNews here and here.

On lane 4 Glenn Snyders (New Zealand), lane 5 Aleksander Hetland (Norway) and on lane 6 Alexander Dale Oen (Norway) getting ready for the Stockholm 2011 FINA World Cup men’s 50 breaststroke final. Snyders won in 27.04, Dale Oen second in 27.06 and Hetland third in 27.13,s ee result list here.

A team behind swimmer Molly Renshaw is appealing against her exclusion from Team GB after the squad for London 2012 was announced on Sunday. At the first stage of trials in London in March, Stacey Tadd won the 200m breaststroke within the required FINA A time to book one spot, but outside the tougher requirement of world-ranked top 16 time. At the second trials in Sheffield last week, Renshaw won the race but finished 0.83 outside the qualifying standard – again the FINA A time. The petition claims Renshaw has been penalised because while they complied with British Swimming practice…

Next week, July 4-8, the Belgian city of Antwerp will host the 2012 European Junior Swimming Championships, biggest event for most of the youngsters while some will use it as preparation for the London 2012 Games. The start lists can now be found here, featuring for instance Danish London 2012 medal contender Mie Ø. Nielsen, and Sweden’s Louise Hansson positioned to win at least a couple of European Junior medals.

They call it an unofficial Danish record here on berns.dk, the 25-meter ‘plunge for distance’ that Laura Funch managed on June 26, 2012. According to Wikipedia, the current world record holder is Francis Winder (F.W.) Parrington, who on September 23, 1933 managed 86 feet 8 inches (26.42 meters).

Pál Joensen and coach Jón Bjarnason by the warm-up pool at the Budapest 2010 European Swimming Championships, after Pál won silver in the men’s 1500 freestyle. They left for Denmark and then Croatia this morning, to attend the final training camp before London 2012. Won’t come back until after the Olympics.

Casey Barrett has the best recap from the U.S. Olympic Trials Day 1 here on Cap & Goggles: “On night one of the U.S. Trials, Gregg Troy’s Gators owned Omaha. There were six Olympic spots available. Coach Troy produced four of them. A rather impressive .666 batting average. Even the devil bows in respect.” Ryan Lochte beat Michael Phelps in the 400 IM, “I have never watched a more sound defeat of Michael Phelps”. In the men’s 400 freestyle, Gator’s Peter Vanderkaay and Conor Dwyer raced to a 1-2. And in the women’s 400 IM, Gator’s Elizabeth Beisel beat Cal’s…

They seem well equipped, the kit including for instance 4 pair of shoes, gala dress with matching earrings, a wollen hat and umbrella (!), official tracksuit etc etc. Maybe not the Italian Armani, but plenty.